March 5 Press Conference and Congressional Briefing to Unveil Report on Safeguarding Protected Health Information

Data breaches of protected health information (PHI) are growing in frequency and in magnitude and have huge financial, legal, operational, clinical, and reputational repercussions. Protecting this valuable health data is an essential part of business for all health care organizations.

On March 5, American National Standards Institute (ANSI) members and stakeholders are invited to attend a press conference and congressional briefing to unveil a new report and method to help organizations operating in the health care industry evaluate the financial impact of breached PHI.

The Financial Impact of Breached Protected Health Information: A Business Case for Enhanced PHI Security was created through the "PHI Project" - a collaboration of ANSI, via its Identity Theft Prevention and Identity Management Standards Panel (IDSP), in partnership with The Santa Fe Group/Shared Assessments Program Healthcare Working Group, and the Internet Security Alliance (ISA) - and involved a cross-section of more than 100 health care industry leaders from over seventy organizations.

The document provides health care organizations a 5-step method - PHIve (PHI Value Estimator) to assess specific security risks and build a business case for enhanced PHI security. This tool estimates the overall potential costs of a data breach to an organization, and provides a methodology for determining an appropriate level of investment needed to strengthen privacy and security programs and reduce the probability of a breach.

The full document will be available to the general public for free download at webstore.ansi.org/phi on March 5 at 10:00 a.m.

Featured speakers at the events will include:

• Joe Bhatia, President and CEO, American National Standards Institute

• Catherine Allen, Chairman and CEO, The Santa Fe Group

• Larry Clinton, President and CEO, Internet Security Alliance

• Rick Kam, President and Co-Founder, ID Experts, Chairman of the PHI Project

• James C. Pyles, Principal, Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC

• Lynda Martel, Director, Privacy Compliance Communications, DriveSavers Data Recovery

• Mary Chaput, CFO and Chief Compliance Officer, Clearwater Compliance

Press Conference
The press conference will be held on March 5, from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m., and will be held at:

The National Press Club - First Amendment Room, 13th floor
529 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20045

Congressional Briefing
The congressional briefing will be held on March 5, from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. at:

The Rayburn House Office Building, Room Rayburn B-340
Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street
Washington, DC, 20003

A simple brown-bag lunch will be served.

Interested parties who wish to attend either event are requested to RSVP by February 29 to pr@ansi.org.